The Liao cultivators who had come to stir up trouble were only at the Dao Foundation realm. There was no need for torture; consumed by fury, they blurted out their motives all on their own.
It turned out that this spiritual land was a sacred ground for several small neighboring tribes. Only the most outstanding youths of each clan were permitted to enter for three months of cultivation each year. Furthermore, each tribe was allowed only a single Dharma Idol; anyone who achieved more had to leave and travel into the depths of the Liao domain to continue their cultivation.
Such strict tradition existed solely because the spiritual qi here was far too thin—worse even than the lowest-grade spirit fields of Qingming—capable of barely sustaining a handful of Dharma Idols lingering on the edge of survival.
One year ago, Chuhe had needed spiritual land to build a workshop and went to speak with Batu. Batu had been fretting over how to curry favor with this great merit-laden figure of Qingming, so with a grand wave of his hand, he bundled this piece of land along with dozens of similar parcels and transferred them all to Chuhe, without charging a single Qingyuan.
By Liao tradition, the strong preyed upon the weak. Wei Yuan was now effectively the Great Khan of the Three Rivers Khanate. Whatever land he wanted, the tribes had to surrender. If they refused, they could always declare war and try to win.
And so, completely unaware of the backstory, Chuhe had enclosed the spiritual land and begun constructing a modern agricultural workshop.
The neighboring tribes seethed with anger but dared not speak out, and many cultivators were forced to relocate. Later, when the workshop commenced operations, its activation instantly drained every wisp of spiritual qi from the area. And the goods it produced, in the words of the Liao, were nothing more than fodder for wretched subhumans.
The Liao tribes had a rigid social hierarchy. Only nobles and cultivators were considered human; mortal commoners were ranked alongside livestock, and at times were treated worse than beasts of burden.
The troublemakers today were all nobles from the surrounding tribes, several of them sons and grandsons of tribal chieftains. In their view, if Chuhe had seized the spiritual qi for his own cultivation, they would have swallowed the bitter pill and accepted it.
Yet Chuhe was using sacred spiritual qi to grow ordinary grain and common fodder for mortal scum! To them, this was no different from feeding refined rice and bleached flour to pigs! One had to remember that even tribal nobles rarely enjoyed refined rice and white flour on ordinary days.
This drove the tribal nobles beyond the brink of tolerance. The more hot-blooded among them resolved to throw away their lives if necessary just to smash the workshop that had desecrated their sacred ground.
After reading through the interrogation report, Chuhe sighed. "I only wanted to run an experiment to see how much we could boost grain and forage yields in such a spirit-barren place. I never expected this to happen."
Wei Yuan, however, chuckled. "Their coming to cause trouble only proves this is a magnificent thing! We can make tremendous capital out of this."
"How so?" Chuhe asked, rather perplexed.
Wei Yuan explained, "The social structure of the Liao is actually quite similar to Great Tang—only one cultivator emerges from tens of thousands of mortals. Cultivators automatically become nobility, while Liao commoners are termed lower people, pariahs, or wretched stock. By law, their status does not even equal that of a warhorse; at best, they rank alongside plow oxen.
"Even if an untouchable manages to reach the first or second tier of Body Casting, they remain an untouchable. Nothing changes, and they are still the private property of the tribal nobles. When dozens of ordinary mortals face a Dao Foundation noble, no matter how they resist, death is their only outcome. But if dozens of Body Casting mortals—even if they have only tempered their sinews and flesh—launch an ambush, there is a very high probability they can slay a Dao Foundation cultivator.
"The true essence of this workshop is taking the spiritual qi once monopolized by the nobility, distributing it among the vast sea of lower-class Liao people, and arming them in the process."
Chuhe was by no means stupid; he was merely insensitive to politics. With Wei Yuan's explanation, everything clicked at once, and he even deduced several layers of meaning that Wei Yuan had left unsaid.
By Liao tradition, pariahs remained pariahs forever unless they could cultivate to the Dao Foundation realm, which allowed them to shed their servile status and rise to citizenship. In the future, even if the Liao Clan managed to reclaim the Three Rivers Khanate, they would find themselves facing a populace teeming with Body Casting pariahs. According to Liao law, these commoners had essentially stolen their master's spiritual qi and would all have to be executed.
Thus, upon retaking the land, the Liao high command would face a dire dilemma: to kill or not to kill.
If they chose to kill, the numbers were simply too staggering. Moreover, when mortals reached Body Casting, the karmic backlash from slaughtering them skyrocketed. Massacring tens of millions of them would be more than even Silver Moon could endure.
If a new ruler took pity and chose not to kill, every single one of these Body Casting Liao commoners would become a ticking time bomb. Having once flourished beneath the sun, they would never willingly crawl back into the freezing, oppressive cracks between rocks to live in humiliation. Give me liberty or give me death—this applied to humans, and it applied equally to the Liao.
Furthermore, these Liao commoners would have already contributed a harvest of karmic luck. In the eyes of anyone who understood karmic fortune, they were leeks that had already been reaped once, their value reduced to zero.
Consequently, once transformed by Wei Yuan, the Liao people of this land would become unruly rabble—impossible to slaughter yet dangerous to spare, ready to revolt at any moment, clamoring constantly about their living standards, yet impossible to squeeze even an ounce of oil from.
Every time Qingming seized a parcel of land, so long as it managed it in this fashion for a time, that land would turn into completely "poisoned soil," ensuring that future generations would know no peace for centuries or millennia to come.
Countermeasures existed, of course, but none could escape the word "extermination." This was precisely why Wei Yuan had rushed over to verify things the moment he saw the practical results of the workshop's operation.
At last, Wei Yuan sighed with emotion. "I truly never expected to find the ultimate weapon against the Pure Land right here."
This time, Chuhe was genuinely baffled. "What does this have to do with the Pure Land?"
Wei Yuan said, "The core of the Pure Land is delivering oneself. What they demand of ordinary believers is alms and devout faith; the spiritual qi ultimately belongs to the Arhats and Bodhisattvas, as does the power of vow. The King Buddha aims to deliver the world, willing to share a portion of spiritual qi with believers to convert it into greater faith and vow power, thereby gathering merit to aid his own cultivation.
"My Dao of the Three Realms aims to deliver the mortal world, yet until now, it could not be fundamentally distinguished from the Pure Land. Human nature being what it is, mortals mostly look after themselves first, practicing whatever is at hand. In the contest over believers, I never had a truly brilliant method—only fighting to seize territory, then fighting again to seize more. But now, we have a way! Who says spiritual qi can only belong to immortals and buddhas?"
In the end, it was a question of to whom spiritual qi should belong—the most crucial and fundamental problem of distribution.
Chuhe's agricultural workshop offered an impeccable solution, equivalent to bestowing spiritual qi upon millions of mortals. In the past, this could only be achieved within grotto-heavens and secret realms. But mortals permitted into grotto-heavens were few and far between—in the Liao domain, they were rarer even than nobles.
The core realm of Qingming had achieved a near-universal distribution of spiritual qi, while the mass-produced Lesser Primordial Cultivation Pellets served as another method of redistribution, though that accounted for only a tiny fraction. Qingming was a special case with an immense number of cultivators and a clear, fair path of advancement from mortal to cultivator, so the distribution of spiritual qi had never been an issue.
"There are Pure Lands in the Liao domain as well, perhaps even larger than Mount Baohua in Northern Qi," Wei Yuan added meaningfully.
He harbored suspicions that the Esoteric Sect might contain branches of the Pure Land, though he currently lacked proof.
Having inspected Chuhe's agricultural workshop, Wei Yuan's confidence surged. On the spot, he approved a massive budget, directing Chuhe to build fifty agricultural workshops first to secure the livelihood and sustenance of one hundred million Liao people, leaving room for future development.
With this arrangement, in a few years, the social fabric of the Three Rivers Khanate would undergo a fundamental transformation. The proportion of Body Casting commoners among the lower classes would skyrocket, causing their overall strength to surge, while the ranks of cultivators would shrink and higher-level cultivation would stagnate. Overall strength would rise only slightly, and in duels between cultivators, they would actually regress.
In Wei Yuan's eyes, such a Liao domain was a fertile field capable of yielding vast amounts of urgently needed Liao karmic luck, yet devoid of high-end combat power—incapable of rebelling and powerless to stir up any real trouble.
As for the future of the Liao Clan, that was not yet part of Wei Yuan's plans. Wei Yuan's grand aspiration was for every human to become a dragon, not every Liao.
As he prepared to depart, Wei Yuan turned to Chuhe and said, "Martial Uncle, your efforts this time truly carry immense merit!"
The moment these words left his mouth, the multicolored light of merit upon Chuhe deepened by several degrees, and specks of merit coalesced from all directions. Wei Yuan paused in surprise, and after a moment's thought, he realized that Chuhe's merit had already reached a critical threshold. His praise had tipped the scales, prompting the merit of Liao commoners across the region who had benefited from the workshop to pierce through the void and merge into Chuhe's body.
At this moment, Wei Yuan gained a fresh understanding of merit. Merit differed from karmic luck. Karmic luck was like ammunition—naturally, the more the better, but it held meaning only when applied and consumed. Merit, on the other hand, was like military honors awarded after a battle; it was an outcome and a state of being. The old Daoist's radiant merit was nearly enough to reopen the path of attaining sainthood through merit. Had Wei Yuan not restarted an entire world, he truly might not have been able to keep Chuhe's light in check.
***
In the capital of the State of Ji, Li Zhi paced back and forth in his study, restless and uneasy.
Sun Chao'en sat behind a desk nearby, his head buried in a mountain of official documents. Seeing that Li Zhi could not settle his mind, he looked up and said, "There is no need to wait. Even when the envoy to the Academy returns, the news he brings certainly won't be good."
"What makes you say that?"
Sun Chao'en said, "Your battles have been brutal, the State of Ji is exhausted, and grain and pay are critically short. Anyone with eyes can see this—did you really need to send someone to the Academy to explain it? Let alone a sacred ground of scholars like the Academy, even in that small sect I originally hailed from, more than one person would have seen through it.
"Yet when you needed support the most, the Academy made not a sound, forcing you to send an envoy to beg for military supplies. If they truly intended to give, the immortal silver and Qingyuan would have arrived long ago."
Li Zhi sighed. "I know that, but I can't quite give up hope. Generation after generation in the Academy has amounted to nothing. If the two Patriarchs don't choose me, who else can they choose?"
"Back then, you asked for three thousand and they gave you only six hundred. Now you have lost even the ancient human king's karmic luck and cost the Academy two supreme treasures. The fact that the Academy hasn't reached out to strip your command already speaks volumes for how well you run your army."
Sun Chao'en's words were blunt, but they reflected the plain truth. The core officers in Li Zhi's army were veteran generals who had followed him for decades. Not only would sending someone from the Academy prove useless, even if the King of Southern Qi came in person to replace Li Zhi, he might not be able to command the Mountain Suppressing Army. Had it not been for this military cohesion, Li Zhi would likely have been replaced long ago.
A moment later, hurried footsteps finally sounded outside the study. Li Zhi's trusted confidant entered, covered in dust from the road. The moment he crossed the threshold, he fell to his knees, holding up a jade box with both hands, and choked out, "This general is incompetent and failed your great trust! Traveling to the Academy, I... I managed to secure only five hundred thousand liang of immortal silver."
*Bang!* Li Zhi slammed his hand against the desk and shot to his feet!
"Outrageous! Are they brushing off a beggar?! Whom did you see?"
"Still Master Huaipu."
Li Zhi knocked the jade box to the floor and gritted his teeth. "Huaipu again! I will certainly—"
Sun Chao'en cut him off. "He is a descendant of a Sage, and shares the bond of being your fellow disciple."
Li Zhi instantly regained his senses, avoiding any further slip of the tongue before his subordinate.
Sun Chao'en walked over, picked up the jade box, drew out the silver banknotes inside, and gave them a shake. "This is five hundred thousand, after all—enough to pay the army for ten days or a fortnight. And this box is quite expensive; it's worth a few thousand liang on its own."
Li Zhi let out a long sigh. "You were right all along, sir. The Academy wants me to retreat in the face of difficulty. But handing over the million-strong army in my grasp won't be that easy! What counsel do you have for me, sir?"
Sun Chao'en picked up a memorial and handed it across.
Li Zhi took it and looked. It was densely filled with lists of properties and names of individuals. He looked back up, uncomprehending.
Sun Chao'en said, "These properties can all be liquidated quickly for cash. And those people are individuals whose crimes deserve death, every one of them possessing considerable wealth. Selling off the estates and confiscating those households will yield enough to cover roughly half a year of military supplies. I have spent the past few days compiling this ledger."
Li Zhi was overjoyed. "With this income, the situation in the State of Ji can be stabilized!"
Sun Chao'en, however, shook his head. "The State of Ji is already battered to pieces. Its people are fierce by nature, and most harbor deep hatred toward you. This place is no longer a foundation for an emperor. If you wish to achieve greatness, you must master the word 'renounce.'"
"May I ask, sir, how should I renounce?"
Sun Chao'en drew a circle around the northwestern corner of the State of Ji and said, "Trade the eighteen commanderies of the State of Ji we currently hold, along with the royal capital, to Southern Qi in exchange for four commanderies bordering Southern Jin. With such immense gain, I wager the King of Qi will not refuse. Then, we muster our entire army, travel light and swift, and strike into Southern Jin!"
Li Zhi drew a sharp breath. "Th-this is burning our bridges behind us—fighting with our backs to the river, leaving no way of retreat!"
Sun Chao'en replied, "As matters stand, you are dead sooner or later. Rather than waiting for death, you might as well seek it on your own terms."
Li Zhi fell silent for a long moment, his expression gradually hardening into resolute determination.
Sun Chao'en added, "The world is like a game of chess; every faction is placing its stones, and few empty spaces remain on the board. Southern Jin has shown no movement to this day. If the Academy intends to play a stone, it must be in Southern Jin."
Li Zhi said slowly, "We play our stone first, leaving the Academy no square to claim?"
Chapter 1374